Beer Review 0093: Terrapin Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout

Terrapin Beer Company produces suds in Athens, Georgia. The brewery was founded in 2002 by two brewers, John Cochran and Brian “Spike” Buckowski, who met while working at another microbrewery. The two partnered up because they thought they had something to offer the beer world that had yet to be tasted.

Moo-Hoo, featuring a terrapin on the label dressed as a cow eating a chocolate bar, is a Chocolate Milk Stout brewed with cocoa nibs and shells from Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Company. Since this beer is a Chocolate Stout, lactose is introduced to the brew. This is a seasonal beer, and while not hard to find, it does sell fast. I purchased a four-pack of this and went back for another the very next week only to find it all sold out.

The pour produced an average size head that was creamy in texture and a nice dark tan color, sitting atop a very dark brown beer. The liquid was free of particles or sediment, and resembled a bar of dark chocolate. Along with the beautiful color contrast with the tan head, it left behind some excellent deep tan lacing that attached itself to the glass all the way from first sip to last.

The aromas were a tale of two tapes; if you put your nose into the glass and almost touched the surface of the beer, the sniffer picked up a sharp burnt coffee note, with hints of chocolate. Pull away a bit, and the aroma got sweeter with more chocolate coming to the front, along with hints of caramel. The scent was almost like chocolate milk, but somewhat tangier — and there was a great subtle hint of vanilla in there, too.

On the palate, this one starts out with chocolate, finishes with chocolate, and is all chocolate in between. An initial sweet chocolate note gets things cracking, followed by a touch of hop bitterness and bite from carbonation in the middle of the taste. This warms the tongue for an extra creamy finish that starts bittersweet but concludes with a sweet and rich chocolate, very similar to licking a bowl clean of chocolate cake batter.

If you like chocolate, you will adore this beer. This is the best Milk Stout I’ve ever had, and the fact that it’s Chocolate Milk Stout just makes it even that much better. Extremely easy to drink and gets better as it warms. Ring the bell, because this one is a winner. Got a beer buddy looking to get into Stouts? Try this one out on him or her — the flavors are bold and intense but tempered with a smooth creaminess.